


be in my book

by Gondolin



Category: Free!, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Blanket Permission, Established Relationship, Free! Dive to the Future, Free! Take Your Marks - Freeform, Haru and Makoto in tokyo, M/M, Out of Character, POV Nanase Haruka, Slice of Life, The Author Regrets Everything, i don't know!!, no beta we die like men, or actually internalised heteronormativity, or maybe Haru is just that slow with feelings who knows, probably, the Yuri!! on Ice characters exist in the same universe but they don't actually interact, the apartment hunting scene came for me personally, they are just famous skaters that get talked about, very vaguely implied internalised homophobia, why is my verbose ass doing his pov you ask
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:13:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29780805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gondolin/pseuds/Gondolin
Summary: Every house they saw was imperfect. Each had a glaring, obvious fault: at the end of the day, none of them would have Makoto in it.
Relationships: Nanase Haruka/Tachibana Makoto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	be in my book

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [Would You Be So Kind](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRW1JcSRPgU) by dodie.
> 
> Fittingly, I wrote this fic in the shower. (In my head, I had to type it outside the shower, obviously.) It all started because I was thinking about the sunset in Tokyo and about my favourite novel, Fire From Heaven by Mary Renault. There’s a point when Hephaistion says something about how “words seem to muddle it all up” in relation to his still-new relationship with Alexander, how he loves him to the point of pain, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. And then I thought about Haruka. And then I thought about this morning’s conversation with [Hikary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hikary) and [sammysidle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sammysidle) about Yuri!!! on Ice existing in the same universe as Free!  
> And then this happened. 
> 
> I’m just going to leave this here and hope Hikary doesn’t strangle me in my sleep. She’s been in this fandom since season 1, and I… technically don’t watch Free!

Haru had never wanted to talk about it, and now it was coming back to bite him in the ass. Just like when people (Kisumi) hit on Makoto and he didn’t know how to make them stop.

Every house they saw was imperfect. Each had a glaring, obvious fault: at the end of the day, none of them would have Makoto in it.

If Haru had been less stubborn in his silence, less attached to his idea of them, they would not be in this situation. After every house, it was on the tip of his tongue. Makoto already had a flat. It would be cramped, but they could share.

But Haru had said he wanted his own place, and there was no way Makoto would push for anything else, now.

The thing was, Haru didn’t. It was just what was supposed to happen. Growing up, and finding your way outside of the straight lines of tiles of the pool. It was just life. And if one wanted to switch lanes, well, that would require talking about it.

Because living together is A Thing. And Haru had always felt like words muddled things up, like that time they filled the pool with flowers, but even worse. Words left their marks. Things, once defined and bridled in by talk, were trapped, frozen into shape. You can’t swim in ice, and Haru wanted nothing more than to keep swimming with Makoto for the rest of his life.

Other things too. Trying disgustingly sweet drinks in outdoor cafes together, falling asleep together, cheering on Nagisa and Rei and all their juniors together. Together, in and out of the water. (Mostly in, if Haru had any say on it.)

*

Haru found an apartment. It was good enough.

*

As usual, the tv in the cafeteria was on. Haru would not have even noticed if it weren’t for a group of students huddled together under it, staring up at it like they were having some sort of religious experience. Begrudgingly, he peeked up from his lunch and saw they were watching an ice skating competition. Haru knew nothing about the sport, except that it looked very pretty. They were showing highlights of some international competition or other where Japan had wiped the floor with the competition, and sure, Haru could appreciate that, but-

And then, Japan’s skater leaped off the ice and into the waiting arms of a silver-haired man in an elegant brown coat. And then kissed him. And kissed him. And kissed him.

Haru wasn’t sure if their kiss went on forever or if his heartbeat had started doing something weird that turned each second into hours. One hand went up to his lips without conscious thought.

*

He had five separate pages on ice skating pulled up on his browser and a video taking up half the screen. It was far too tiny to truly appreciate the grace and power of the movements, but it wasn’t like Haru was _actually_ watching.

“Haru?”

He looked up to see Makoto’s trademarked Extremely Worried Face (of the Oh Shit, Haru-chan variety. He might have won the battle against the chan out loud, but he knew Makoto’s brain). Oh, right, he was sitting on the doorstep to Makoto’s apartment, waiting for him to get home. He could see how that might be worrying.

He stood up and asked, “Can I kiss you?”

Makoto let out a tiny gasp of surprise, but let it never be said that Tachibana Makoto would turn down the opportunity to kiss his not-boyfriend senseless. Which he did, thoroughly, right until Haru’s head loudly thumped against the door.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Mh.”

“Should we go in?”

Haru nodded.

He could tell that Makoto wanted to ask what had brought this on, but, as usual, he was trying to be ever the gentleman. Haru was suddenly very fed up with it. He wanted Makoto to ask… something, anything!

“Why didn’t we move in together?” He blurted out.

Makoto dropped his shoe, but recovered enough to reply. “I thought you didn’t want to.”

He didn’t say that he, Makoto, didn’t want to.

Haru went to sit on Makoto’s bed. He was comfortable in his space, had always been. Except that focusing on it now made it tense. Words. It was easier before, but then easier wasn’t going to get him what he wanted.

“Are you okay?”

Haru showed Makoto his phone. He turned it, making the skating video slightly larger.

“That’s Katsuki Yuri at the Worlds, right? He’s pretty cool,” Makoto sat down beside Haru and gave him a sunny smile, “Do you think there’s any chance swimming will get moved to the winter Olympics? I’d love an excuse to meet him.”

The next video in the queue was an interview with the ice skater in question and his coach, from a local news channel. Viktor Katsuki-Nikiforov’s Japanese was atrocious, but Yuri Nikiforov-Katsuki smiled at his efforts like he was witnessing the birth of a new form of poetry.

Makoto tried to subtly look at Haru instead of the screen. Haru frowned.

There were a few technical questions about the program and training regimens. A few about how their partnership worked, on and off the ice. Then the next video started, of them skating together. It was shaky and from a low angle, taken during training. Haru put the phone down, but didn’t look back at Makoto.

He could not stop thinking about them. The video continued playing between his fingers, and even though Haru still didn’t know about the technical aspects, he could tell they were having so much fun skating together. And it was just for fun, since they were not competing in pair skating.

Haru bit his lower lip. Makoto gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“Okay,” Makoto said, “My lease is for one year. After that, I can move to your place. Or we can add you to my contract here.”

Haru looked up. Was it that easy?

Makoto smiled at him.

It was.


End file.
